when a good muse goes bad

I don’t normally think of my motivation to write in terms of having a “muse”. I have one, of course. It’s one of those writer things. If you’re a writer, you have a muse. I just don’t talk about mine.

So what is a muse, you ask? Greek Muses

Well, we writers don’t just listen to the voices in our heads; we also bow down to our mythical muse to send us the inspiration to write. When the words are flowing like a swollen river in the rainy season, we take the credit. But when creativity dries up like a cracked riverbed in the middle of a drought, it’s not our fault, it’s that damn muse. So what do we do when our muse up and vanishes without a trace?

Are we talking about before or after we panic?

Once I accepted the fact that my muse was among the missing, I decided to imagine her running off to the beach, where she’s soaking up the sun during the day and downing shots of tequila in the night. I’m certain she’s trying her luck in wet t-shirt contests and singing really bad karaoke with the other missing muses. I hear tales of my writer friends dragging their muses back from dirty tattoo shops after lost weekends in Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas…well, you know.

I keep checking YouTube expecting to see her in an episode of “Muses Go Wild”.

Wherever my muse has gone, I hope she’s having more fun than I am…stuck at home in cold rainy weather, suffering from writer’s block thanks to her. Instead of shots of tequila, I’m doing shots of cough syrup.

Oh, I know she’ll come stumbling in after she’s had her fill of fun in the sun. She always does. And I’ll be back to churning out witty fiction and amusing blogs again.